A Classic Case of Love
Soprano Helen Noonan and guitarist Peter Constant present an intimate programme of love songs spanning centuries, from folk and early music to Schubert, Satie, Villa-Lobos and the twentieth-century stage and songbook.
John Dowland composer
Erik Satie composer
Franz Schubert composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos composer
Antonio Vivaldi composer
Kurt Weill composer
Christine McCombe composer
John Lennon composer
Paul McCartney composer
Christina Rossetti songwriter
Maurice Magre songwriter
Herman Hupfeld songwriter
Ruth Valladares Corrêa songwriter
W. B. Yeats songwriter
Ludwig Rellstab songwriter
Benjamin Britten arranger
Don Santin arranger
Peter Constant arranger
Fred Noad arranger
Joe Washington arranger
Noonan shaped the disc as a deliberate turn from the flamboyant diva roles that had filled her stage life — Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera, the Ghost of Opera in Chamber Made's Recital — toward gentler repertoire.
The programme moves from Dowland and Vivaldi through Britten's folk arrangements and Schubert's Ständchen to Satie, Weill, Villa-Lobos, Lennon and McCartney, and Christine McCombe's setting of Rossetti, Halcyon. Constant's guitar, recorded at the ABC Southbank Studios, keeps the partnership close and unforced.
Divas and prima donnas have featured largely – and loudly – in my performing life over the last few years: Nellie Melba, Carlotta from The Phantom of the Opera, Ghost of Opera from Recital. Satisfying and fun to play, but all temperamental, or panic-stricken, or tragic!
So this collection of songs celebrates love in a gentle way. Love lost, love yearned for, love savoured and experienced and won. The songs are classics from great composers of centuries past – Dowland, Vivaldi, Schubert, to timeless folk songs, to the twentieth century masterpieces of Satie, Weill, and Lennon and McCartney.
I love the intimacy the sound of the guitar brings to music. The just-you-and-me-alone quality. I loved singing to Peter Constant's exquisite guitar accompaniment. I hope you will enjoy listening to these classic love songs.
The classical guitar has come a long way since the great Andrés Segovia set out, as if "on a mission from God", to give the guitar a status as a solo concert instrument.
These days, the life of a classical guitarist is a deliciously mixed bag. Our days are typically spent in a kind of (irresistible) mayhem of practice, researching and arranging, working with composers, rehearsing with musicians of "sundries kindes", performing, recording, and passing on our knowledge to others who share our bizarre attraction to the sound of the plucked string.
Working with Helen on this collection of songs was a collaboration which included most of the above activities at some point. And it was seriously good fun.
Reviews
★★★★¾
Sounds Lovely
Helen Noonan has conjured a musical masterstroke
This pleasant collection of love songs is delightfully presented by two distinguished artists... Happily, the recording captures the sense of intimacy so essential to the expression of these songs thus making for a disc of light and diverting gems.
Helen Noonan, partnered impeccably by guitarist Peter Constant, presents a wide ranging and soothing slice of repertory with consistent aplomb. ... A thorough going joy for the laid back warmth which it consistently generates: soothing as it is, however, it sustains interest primarily on the strength of the obvious empathy of both performers with their wide-ranging repertory combined with the impeccable interplay of their partnership. ... Impeccably presented ... Delicate music making at its best, tailor made for languid listening in the drowsy heat of a summer's day. ... The wash of exquisite sound is irresistible.
Artists
Helen Noonan
Soprano Helen Noonan is a Melbourne original. A trained actress. A trained singer. The striking feature of her work is its vocal and dramatic versatility which sees her playing roles from the straight operatic to contemporary operatic.
Peter Constant
Peter Constant is one of the new breed of fine young guitarists this country has produced in recent years, with a solo performing career extending to Italy, America and Holland as well as to capital cities and regional centres across Australia.
Audio preview
Tracks
- Waly Waly (Traditional) Arr: Benjamin Britten 4:21
- Weep You No More Sad Fountains John Dowland 3:06
- Sposa son disprezzata Antonio Vivaldi Arr: Don Santin Peter Constant 5:51
- Salley Gardens (Traditional) W. B. Yeats Arr: Benjamin Britten 3:00
- Gymnopédie No. 1 Erik Satie Arr: Peter Constant 3:03
- Ständchen Franz Schubert Ludwig Rellstab Arr: Fred Noad 3:50
- Bachianas brasileiras No. 5 Heitor Villa-Lobos Ruth Valladares Corrêa 5:16
- Berceuse (Guitar solo) Leo Brouwer 3:52
- Yesterday John Lennon Paul McCartney Arr: Joe Washington 2:56
- Modinha Heitor Villa-Lobos 1:30
- Halcyon Christine McCombe Christina Rossetti 2:50
- Je ne t'aime pas Kurt Weill Maurice Magre Arr: Don Santin Peter Constant 4:15
- As Time Goes By Herman Hupfeld 5:56
Performers
- Helen Noonan · all except track 8
- Peter Constant · guitar
Composers
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. His operas are firmly established in the international repertoire, and more of them are played worldwide than those of any other composer born in the twentieth century.
John Dowland
John Dowland's lute songs and ayres carry a rare, deliberate melancholy: tears that fall in measured pavans, love that stings in galliards, darkness that still sings. His music remains the living heart of the English Renaissance songbook.
John Lennon
John Lennon's songs cut through styles and decades with plainspoken hooks and melodies that refuse to age. From Beatles classics to the solo anthem Imagine, his writing keeps finding new voices in jazz rooms, a cappella circles and the concert hall.
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney's songs travel far beyond their rock origins. Melodic, singable and built for reinvention, they turn up here in jazz sets, a cappella harmony, intimate guitar ballads and even harpsichord with drums and bass.
Christine McCombe
Christine McCombe is a Melbourne-based Australian composer whose chamber and electroacoustic works explore silence, time and space. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles and soloists in Australia and abroad.
Erik Satie
Erik Satie's piano music moves in slow, spare circles. The Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes rest on simple modal melodies and unresolved chords, cool, unhurried and strangely weightless.
Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. In only thirty-one years he left a vast body of work, including over six hundred Lieder, and remains among the most frequently performed composers.
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) was a Brazilian composer whose vast output fused native folk and popular music with European classical craft. His Bachianas Brasileiras remain among the most recognised works of twentieth-century South American art music.
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, priest and virtuoso violinist. He is best known for his instrumental concertos, above all the violin cycle The Four Seasons.
Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill (1900–1950) was a German-born American composer for the stage, known for blending popular idioms with serious craft so that theatre music could speak to a wide public.
Leo Brouwer
Leo Brouwer’s guitar music moves between Cuban pulse, modernist experiment and later modal clarity. The Etudes Simples, Hika in memory of Takemitsu, Micro Pieza and Berceuse show how sharply he can shape atmosphere and motif.
Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti was a nineteenth-century poet whose verse has long been set as song. Her words appear as song texts across several Move recordings.
W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of twentieth-century literature. His lyric verse, steeped in Irish legend and craft, has long been set for the concert platform.
Contributors
Photography
Donna Coleman
Cover design
Phil Lukies
Where to listen
A Classic Case of Love is available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
A Classic Case of Love is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MD 3198
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 49 minutes 46 seconds
- Producer
- Paul Petran
- Recording Engineer
- Russell Thompson
- Venue
- ABC Studios, Melbourne
- Credit
- Donna Coleman
Phil Lukies - Release date
- 1997
- Musical work
copyright - © 1997 Helen Noonan
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 1997 Move Records
- Categories
- Classical, Vocal
- Genres
- Vocal & Opera, Romantic & Impressionist
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574319828
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